Oireachtas Anniversary Honoured

The Oireachtas held a special joint sitting in the Mansion House in Dublin this morning to mark the 90th anniversary of the first Dáil.

The sitting was held to commemorate the first sitting of the Dáil, 90 years ago, when Sinn Féin TDs elected the previous December fulfilled their election promise to establish a separate Irish parliament.

Members of the Dáil and Seanad, as well as a number of former Taoiseach and members of the international diplomatic corps attended today's commemoration.

Tributes were paid to the men and women who set up the first Dáil in defiance of "the might of the British Empire".

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, made a speech at the event calling for everybody to pull together to overcome the current economic crisis.

The earliest parliament in Ireland was the Parliament of Ireland, which was founded in the thirteen century as the supreme legislative body of the lordship of Ireland and was in existence until 1801.

On the historic day in 1919 with the opening of the Oireachtas, Sinn Féin had won 73 out of the 105 Irish seats in the general election for the Westminster parliament

(DW/BMcC)